Now, I do not profess to be an expert on beauty pageants, but to my amateur eye, the photo to the right seems to indicate that Ms. Fakih seems to qualify as, well, beautiful.

Moreover, I am not an expert on Sharia law, but I am pretty sure that posing in public in a skimpy two-piece bathing suit is pretty much forbidden. As such, the way in which the victory of Ms. Fakih in the Miss USA contest is evidence of Trump kowtowing to radical Islam is beyond me. Now, Schussel might have a point if Trump had replaced the bikini with a burqa.

Actually, rather than (as Schussel claims) “Hezbollah […] laughing at us” it seems far more likely that this will inflame the rage of some radical Islamists who will see this as further evidence of the corrupting influence of the West.

Indeed, my first reaction when I read that a Muslim had won was that it should be evidence that the Muslim faith can exist in the West without problems rather than evidence of capitulation to Hezbollah. Of course, I also knew that it would probably make some people’s heads explode.

Ultimately, we are talking here about the silliness that is beauty pageantry, make even more silly by the fact that it is run by Donald Trump.

About Steven L. Taylor

Steven L. Taylor is Professor of Political Science and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Troy University. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Debbie Schussel, of the little-noted-by-the-Donald pissant press, can probably write anything she wants about Homo Tycoondus Maximus, but if this gets back to him, she’s probably in for a world of hurt.

I don’t know why this should be surprising. For all the serious concern about the imposition of Shariah law in America, people like Schussel are really only motivated by hatred of brown people. They manage to inflate this into a moral struggle — but then, racists always do. There’s little difference between stating that a Muslim American women wining a beauty pageant is a blow to our democracy and claiming that a law ordering all brown people to carry proof of ID or face arrest as “illegal” really exists because a rancher was murderered by someone who may or may not have come from Mexico.

I’m not terribly familiar Ms. Schussel. I can only assume that she suffers from a specific form of tourette syndrome, where she uncontrollably inserts the word dhimmi into her speech. She has my sympathies.

If I may interrupt the verbal stoning of Ms. Schussel, I think the definition of “dhimmi” that you cited is, perhaps, the Cliff Notes version, if not the CAIR version. There’s a bit more to it than that “governed” bit which may explain, if I may paraphrase, “Where have all the Christians and Jews gone… Long time passing…”

I have read Bat Ye’or’s Islam and Dhimmitude, among other similar works; I am not naive about these things.

To be Dhimmi is to be subject to second class status in an Islam-dominated state. Is she really saying Trump is Dhimmi; that his actions are akin to being forced to wear clothes indicative of a subject status, to be unable to travel, and to be subject to monetary deprivations not known by others?

She’s either being silly or stupid, and doesn’t do her cause any good, unless she’s actually secretly an Islam plant to discredit their enemies. Or maybe she doesn’t give a damn about any of it, and just wants hits.

My mistake in the previous post. While her family does celebrate both Muslim and Christian traditions, she considers herself Muslim. She did attend a Catholic school, which is perhaps what I mis-remembered.

Man…it’s interesting how so much of this media attention circulates around her “religion”. Sure, she’s Arab, but can hardly be called a “practicing” Muslim. She herself stated that her family isn’t “defined by religion, but is more liberal [and] spiritual”.

Mentally damaged people like Debbie simply need anything to grab at in order to flaunt their racist and prejudiced way of thinking. Her very premise is:

Anything to do with Islam is inherently evil; Rima Fakih is of lebanese decent; Lebanon is primarily composed of Muslims; Muslims are a monolithic group; therefore the logical conclusion – Rima is secretly working for terrorist groups and promotes their evil ideology.

Priceless 😉

Now, I myself am a Muslim revert, and so I don’t at all agree with the idea that Rima represents Muslims (there are two extremes, perhaps on different sides of the spectrum: the terrorists, and then Muslims who abandon their religion’s merits – one being modesty), however, it’s ridiculous how racist some can be.

The real question is – why must this be about her religion? None of the other winners has such attention directed towards their religions. It’s quite obvious why…

No wonder all of those Islams are a bunch of crazy bastards who fall down and worship the false prophet Mohammed (the donkey dung of the sand world). Look at the chick, that is what all those other chicks running around all covered up look like, they are afraid somebody might look at them and get all excited. Those crazy bastards have kept themselves and women so wrapped up for so long they will go into mental stupor for hundreds of years because of this, and thier defeat at the hands of the Great USA military (along with several other nations) is assured ! Go ahead Islamic nuts and stick your head in the sand because you have been shamed and revealed to the great idiots you are

Muslim religion being “accepted” in the USA? Giving it a “prettier” picture? Shows what it is really like, the Muslim religion, pretty on the outside (a little bit), uglier than hell on the inside. People who believe in Islam might be ok, the Islam religion is a false one, along with the faux Mohammed.

Nemat Sadat I checked out that link. And the “muslim” bashing has just begun, or I should say Islam bashing, since that is the root of the problem (Satan (the one defeated by Jesus) is at the heart of the root of the problem, since Islam is based on lies, and the father of lies is Lucifer. So, crazy ass nuts who support Islam are Muslim extremists who are decieved by Lucifer himself. Islam will not be accepted here in America, not today, next week, next year, not ever. Deal with it, how bout you start by getting your head out of the sand or hiney take your pick.